The Man You Need (Love on Tour #4) (13 page)

“You can call me for a ride anytime, anywhere.” He held out a business card.

“Thanks, Tony.”

He walked away without another word. I ducked into my room and automatically moved toward the light switch by the door, until my brain registered that there was already a glow in the room. It seemed to be coming from near the bed. I turned my head in that direction.

There, lying on my bed, in shorts and a tank top, his bare feet dangling off the end, was Jack.

15

I threw my purse down and approached him, hands on my hips. “What the hell are you doing here?”

“I wanted to make sure you got back alright.”

I stopped a few feet from the bed and looked down at him. “Yeah, I did. No thanks to you.”

“Hey, I sent Tony.”

“Whatever. Time to go, Jack.”

He swung his legs over the side of the bed and sat up. “Don’t kick me out, Princess. Let’s talk.” He patted the spot beside him.

I was pissed and mixed up and did not want to talk. But for some inexplicable reason, I sat down anyway. “How did you get in here?”

“Mike has an extra key to everyone’s room.”

“So… You told him what?”

“I told him everything.”

“
Everything
?”

“No. I didn’t tell him about our little arrangement, if that’s what you mean. I told him about tonight and the girls’ bathroom and Evan Light. We both agreed that someone should make sure you got back all right. I volunteered,” he said, as if there was nothing suspicious about that.

“I bet you did.” I was angry at him and it reminded me that this morning I’d been angry at him for just wanting to get some, for being like every other guy when I thought he was different.

Jack pushed aside my long, black hair and rubbed his thumb over my cheek. “So did you tell him to fuck off, or did you give some lame excuse?”

I yanked his hand away from my face. “No, I told him the truth,” I said petulantly.

“Which is?”

“I told him I didn’t want to go with him.”

“And why didn’t you?”

I flopped back on the bed. “I don’t know, Jack. Because I’m a fucking mess.”

He leaned over and propped himself on his elbow beside me. “Don’t be so overdramatic, Princess.”

“No, I am. I’m thirty-one fucking years old and I am still trying to figure my shit out. I should have figured all this shit out years ago.”

“I don’t know. I don’t think there’s a timeline on that, Stac. I’m the same age as you and I don’t have my shit figured out.”

“What are you talking about? You have a great career.”

“Yeah, but I don’t have the whole wife-kids-house-in-the-suburbs thing figured out. I don’t even know if I want those things.”

“That makes two of us. We’re a fucking mess.”

He chuckled.

“Though Sean was older than us when Baby walked into his life,” I pointed out. “He had the career thing. But his love life was fucked.”

“Yeah, a new super model every other month. What a mess.”

“Yeah, but he wasn’t happy.”

“No. He sure is now, though.”

I looked at Jack and my stomach did a weird little flip. I didn’t like it. “I don’t think we should continue with our arrangement, Jack.”

I’d known last night that it had to end. I told myself it was because I didn’t like the way Jack looked at me in the hallway. And if he asked for an explanation, I would tell him just that. I’d tell him that I wasn’t a piece of meat and he couldn’t treat me that way. I could already see how his face would look when I said the words.

But, if I was honest with myself, the real reason I knew I needed to end our arrangement was that I was jealous last night when I’d walked in on him and Sharyl. And that was bad, very bad.

“Okay.” Jack agreed, way too easily.

“Don’t get broken up over it.”

“Don’t get me wrong, it was fun. A lot of fun. But if you don’t want to do it anymore,” he said, shrugging, “then we’ll do whatever you want.”

I stared into his light brown eyes. How had I ended up here with a man like this as my closest friend?

“So, what do you want to do?”

“I’m freaking exhausted. I want to shower and get the smell of bar off me, then crash,” I said, standing up.

“You do smell.”

I gave him the finger and ducked into the bathroom with my bag. I took a long hot shower. Once my hair was dry and I was clothed in my usual bedtime garb, a cotton tank top and panties, I walked out of the steamy bathroom and came to a screeching halt.

Jack was lying in my bed, not just on it, but
in
it. His shorts were crumpled up on the floor next to the bed. He was lying there, curled up, still wearing his shirt and boxers. He was wrapped up in the blankets, only his bare feet peeking out at the end of the bed.

I was going to give him a piece of my mind, but he looked so peaceful, lying there, sound asleep. So, I crawled in with him.

When I woke up, I was wrapped in Jack’s arms.

“Hey, what the hell?” I groaned. But I didn’t move.

“You’re cuddly,” Jack said, nestling his head behind my neck.

“Are you calling me fat?”

“Please,” he said, pulling me tighter against his chest.

“What time is it anyway? Don’t we have somewhere to be?”

“Hmm, short drive to the next stop. We don’t have leave until around noon. We have brunch with your brother at ten.”

I glanced at the digital clock on the bedside table. It was seven-thirty.

“Go back to sleep,” Jack grumbled.

When I woke up again, I could hear water running in my shower. What the hell? I sat up and stared at the bathroom door. The water stopped and I could hear someone moving around in there. I grabbed my bag and rummaged through it until I found some decent clothes to wear.

By the time I was dressed, Jack came waltzing out of the bathroom, in fresh, clean clothes, his hair still wet.

I examined him. “You brought clothes in here?”

He shrugged and threw his dirty clothes into the bag that sat beside the bathroom door.

“Don’t you have your own room?”

“I like sharing yours.”

“Why?”

“I’m not really used to living alone.”

“What?”

“I never really have. Other than time on the road, I’ve always lived with someone, my grandparents, roommates, girlfriends.”

“You’ve never had a place of your own?”

“Nope. Weird, huh?”

“Yeah… Well. Maybe not. I guess I haven’t, either.”

“That’s only because you couldn’t afford it.”

“True. I wouldn’t mind living alone.” At least I didn’t think I would. “And you didn’t have to pick me to be the person to keep you company.”

“Too late. Come on. Let’s go to brunch, Princess,” he said, opening the door.

****

“I don’t get it. Explain it to me again,” Mike said, before tipping his head back to finish off his beer.

“Seriously?”

“Look. I read the play in school, and I saw it once, too. But I just can’t wrap my head around it. It’s dumb.”

“Maybe it’s a lost cause.”

Mike was missing Tak, so the two of us had slipped out of the concert early to grab a drink at a bar across the street from the venue. And somehow we’d ended up discussing
Waiting for Godot
.

“Well, it’s one play I’ll never get and you’ll never be in.”

“True,” I said. “Since it only has men in it.” I finished my own beer and watched Mike order us another round. “I have played a man before, though.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, in high school. I was taller than all the guys and somehow I got cast as the male lead,” I explained.

“What play was it?”

“God, I don’t even remember.”

“Then you’ve been in too many.”

“Probably.”

“You like stage acting the best?”

I shrugged. “It’s all I’ve ever done.”

“You think you really want to get into television?”

“I think I’d like to try. I don’t know. We’ll see if Sam can rustle me up an audition or two by the time we get back. He doesn’t have much to do these days, anyway.”

“Yeah, he’s got a bit of work with the old album going crazy. But since Sean and Hank are planning to take a break, he’ll have some time on his hands. Especially if he sticks with his refusal to take on anyone else.”

“Five years is a long time.”

“Especially in the music business. But they’ve both already had long successful careers. They won’t have any trouble making a comeback if that’s what they want to do. And if they don’t, they can live off royalties for the rest of their lives.”

“What about you, Mikey? What are you going to do for the next five years with your only two clients lying low?”

“I don’t want to sound cocky, but I have my pick right now. I can pick up any number of up-and-coming rock acts. They all want me.”

“Because you’ve worked for Sean for so long?”

“Yeah, and because everyone thinks I handled the ‘baby affair’ so well. In truth, Sam was the one who saved all our asses on that one.”

Last year, when that magazine accused Hank of being little Henry’s father, Sean and Hank refused to take a paternity test. They didn’t want to give credence to the idea that Hank and Baby would ever have had an affair. So Sam had stepped in and taken one. It proved that he was Henry’s uncle and the whole thing got put to bed nice and tidy. As their publicist, Mike got most of the credit for it. Sam could’ve cared less.

“So, you’re gonna grab a couple new clients, settle into life in Malibu? Hang out with Tak?”

“I am really into him, Stac. I know we haven’t dated that long, but he’s just… so…”

“Perfect.”

“For me, yeah. I’m thinking about asking him to move in when we get back.”

“No shit?”

“Yeah, I mean, he lives in a shithole with three other guys near Hollywood.”

“I thought his career was going well.”

“It is, but it just took off a few months ago.”

“I’m guessing that getting him out of the shithole is not your real reason for wanting him to move in.”

He smiled. “Not really, no.”

“You love him?”

“I think I might.” Mike took a drink from the beer the waitress just set in front of him. “Hey, what’s going on with you and Jack?”

“What? What do you mean?”

“You’re sharing a hotel room.”

“We are not!” I said, indignantly.

“He didn’t go back to his room this morning.”

“What are you? The fucking Secret Service?”

“His room is right next to mine,” he said in his defense.

“It’s not what you think.”

“Oh, really?”

“It’s not. He’s pathetic and lonely. So I let him stay in my room. But we’re just friends.”

Mike raised his eyebrows.

“I swear. We are. Besides, Jack is so not my type.”

“He can play guitar,” he said, winking at me.

“So. He’s like this sweet, stable, grandma-loving good boy. There’s nothing sexy about that.” It was such a lie. Jack was way sexy. But I chose to ignore that.

“Hmmm. Okay. So, is there an actual sexy guy in your life right now?”

“No. My brother basically serves as a chastity belt,” I said glumly.

Mike laughed. “I’m sure if you wanted to, you could find a way around that.”

“I’m not sure I want to.” I hadn’t realized I felt that way until the words came out of my mouth.

“Really?”

“Yeah, maybe I just need a little alone time to figure my shit out,” I told him, at the exact same moment that I had the thought.

“Not a bad idea. It’s a methodology I’ve employed myself in the past.”

“Yeah? And how did that work out?”

“Not so great.”

****

“Yeah, Gramps, that sounds good. See you tomorrow.” Jack hung up his phone and threw it on the bedside table before kicking off his shorts and crawling into my bed.

“We’re going to hang out with your grandparents, huh?” I’d been in the bathroom during most of his conversation. I’d come in, wearing my usual bedtime attire, just as he’d finished the call.

Jack had been staying in my hotel room for the last five nights while his own room stood empty. No one knew about it except for Mike. And it didn’t really matter anyway, because nothing was going on between us. Since I’d made the declaration that we should end our arrangement, there hadn’t been even a hint of hanky-panky. There
was
a lot of cuddling, though. As soon I hit the bed each night, Jack wrapped me up in his arms. I had never been a big cuddler, but I was getting used to it.

“Yeah, Grandpa says the weather is supposed to be nice, so he wants to have a barbeque. Everyone’s invited.” He reached out and pulled me into a spoon. “We’ll go early in the day before we meet up with your parents and retrieve little Henry.”

I was glad that everyone was going. I’d been a little nervous about it being just me, Jack and his grandparents.

“You think they’ll like me?”

“Yes. As long as you behave.”

“What? Like, no swearing or halter tops?”